Gene Amdahl

Passion at its finest.

I was reviewing Informatica code pages when I found about this Amdahl guy, one of the implementors of IBM's System 360 mainframe computer models - considered one of the most successful computer designs in history. And as I looked over his resume of different ventures, accomplishments and failures - it struck me that at an age of 74, he was still engaged in VLSI/mainframe computer system designs. Apparently, we have the same birthday.

a brief summary of his resume (sourced from wikipedia)
- born on 16 November 1922
- Amdahl finished his doctorate degree in Theoretical Physics on 1952
- He went on to work with IBM and was Chief Architect of S/360 computers
- Awarded IBM Fellow in 1965
- 1970, left IBM and founded his own Amdahl Corporation - concentrated on "plug-compatible" mainframes w/c battled the more expensive IBM S/360 machines
- Amdahl Corporation sold over US$1 billion
- 1979, left and founded Trilogy systems with funds of almost US$200 million - concentrated on designing ICs for even cheaper mainframes which eventually failed. Then concentrated on VLSI technology which also failed.
- 1985, merged with Elxsi and failed in 1989
- 1987, founded Andor International which became bankrupt on 1995 due to production problems and business competition - concentrated on making smaller and more efficient machines
- 1996, founded CDS (Commercial Data Servers) which has been renamed to Xbridge systems - concentrated on designing new super-cooled processor designs
- Xbridge systems - creates connectivity software for mainframes and open systems
- November 2004, named to the board of advisers for Massively Parallel Technologies

Now that is how you put yourself in Computer History. This is passion at its finest peeps. Age 74 and still greatly involved in mainframe stuff? W-o-w. This just made me realize that I'm not yet really that passionate in Data Warehousing. Before this, I have not seen myself doing DW stuff past 40. All I thought of was to relax, have some good time, do other interests.

How does Billy Gates think? James Gosling? How about Linus Torvalds? Ralph Kimball? Bill Inmon?

Dang - with my attitude, mindset and lifestyle right now, I feel like I'm not really part of this computer evolution era - Data Warehouse evolution more specifically. Grr...